johno1234

Are you guys talking AUD/day here?

Seeing $1055pp for 8 days balcony at the moment with $0 OBC

If the timing suits there are also sightseeing boat trips that run from the viaduct, which is also a short walk from the ship. There are dolphin spotting trips as well as fishing or plain sight seeing.

If you are energetic, I would get a taxi to Cornwall Park and walk around the park and up to the monument to see the view. Auckland rests on a number of dormant volcanoes so there are lots of these parks with great walks and views. Alternatives to the above include Mt Eden and North Head. The latter can be accessed from the Devonport Ferry. Which reminds me - instead of Waiheke, a shorter ferry excursion is to Devonport which is a quaint place also with great volcanic cone walks. All the ferries run from a terminal that is about 100 yards away from the cruise dock.

3 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Yes, and I agree with him.  It would be a major overhaul to change the muster stations, if even possible at all.  And as stated earlier, you have to report in person.  The truth is, if things have become so bad that it's dangerous to conduct a safety drill, the cruise itself is no longer a viable option.  

They could run the muster in two shifts - odd number cabins then evens for instance. Half the people each time would be quite a bit better.

2 hours ago, KroozNut said:

 

But that's a lame argument... at best!

Well that's your opinion and you're fully entitled to it.

Mine is that if the muster area has insufficient space for people to be in a healthy and comfortable amount of personal space (in a sweltering tropical climate) i.e. not pressed shoulder to shoulder, and no room for seats for the many elderly or infirm passengers to sit... then yes, I would argue that is insufficient space.

6 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

But these things cannot be changed.  Those ships that hold muster indoors have been allowed to by the class societies because there is simply not enough room on the promenade decks under the boats.  Once a ship has been designed and the locations of the muster stations determined, they will not be changed over the life of the ship.

Wow, that's interesting. 

It could be argued that on the vessels I've had outdoor muster, that there wasn't  enough room on the deck there either!

17 hours ago, mom says said:

And crowding during muster drill is so much worse than elevators after the evening show, or the queues at the start of port visits, or the stores during one of their "sales"?  If the possibility of being in a crowd while aboard a ship is of great concern, then a cruise is probably not a good idea for you.

The thing about elevators and shows and sales and even queues is that passengers can easily manage or avoid them. 

The enforced, extended close contact with others at some muster drills cannot be avoided.

I've been on cruises where the musters are held in theaters and restaurants. They were fine. I've also been on some (can't remember if it was NCL or Carnival) that were held standing outside on the deck and we were packed shoulder to shoulder together. That's the thing that worries me. It carries a much greater risk of one person infecting many. 

4 hours ago, Cruzaholic41 said:

With this attitude, it’s best that you just heed the advice to cancel your cruise. Muster is part of the cruise. If it worries you, don’t go. 

Good advice. But it worries that so many people will heed it that large numbers of cruises will be cancelled, and large numbers of staff will lose their jobs.

 "(from all over)"

I'm pretty sure they don't allow anyone who has recently been to China, Iran or Korea to board?

It's USCG required - but packing a lot of people in very close proximity (sardines) for a significant period of time would seem extremely unwise at the moment..

Has anyone on a recent or current cruise noted any changes to the muster drill?

On 2/25/2020 at 9:03 AM, sfaaa said:

You think so? Some hot climate countries like Australia & NZ (summer right now), Singapore Malaysia, Thailand, Mid East etc are all getting hit by coronavirus. So much for this theory.

"Hit" as there is one case in NZ and I think, 11, in Australia?

Those have come in from "hot" places (Iran in the NZ case) no reports I've heard so far of it spreading.

Still early days but I think there is an over-reaction to this event. Over the same period the number of common influenza deaths is orders or magnitude higher.

Nice selections there, Cruisegirl6.

For some reason the barkeep on Celebrity Reflection gave me a Pina colada made with Zacapa 23 Rum rather than the well brand and it was divine. With the shots poured on the bottom and the top of the glass it was quite distinct as opposed mixed right through the drink which would have been a waste.
 

We had connecting balcony cabins on Miracle - worked fine for us and 3 kids. Their room had two singles and the sofa made up as a bed.

Note that there is no way to lock the interconnecting door so your "time together" can get interrupted!

7 minutes ago, five. said:

I REALLY WANT to do this. Unfortunately my wife is not adventurous at all. She won't even get on my 4 wheeler around the neighborhood. So I don't know what to do. It'll just be the two of us, so I don't really want to split up for that.

When we did this tour my wife was happy enough in the passenger seat even when I was drifting some corners, and she is a bit of a nervous passenger when we are driving on roads in our car! She also had a couple of drives when we were stopped at the various locations so didn't totally miss out.

You just gotta do this tour. I think your wife will be OK if she doesn't have to drive. Hopefully you get Leroy as your guide  - he was great fun. 

Learn something every day! 

If you are an adventurous thrill seeker I highly recommend AGW Tours in Aruba. Their ATV tour is amazing. But be warned - the driving is too fast & furious for some, and the natural rockpool swim was kinda dangerous when we were there with ocean swells crashing over the rocks into the pool!

There's nothing in the Cheers! package that excludes any particular top shelf brand or drink other than the $20 limit.

from Carnival: https://www.carnival.com/FunShops/item/SUM/cheers

CHEERS! INCLUDES:

• All spirits (including cocktails), as well as beer and wine by the glass with a $20.00 or lower menu price 
• Sodas, Zero-Proof frozen cocktails, energy drinks, specialty coffee, hot tea, 500ml bottled water and other non-alcoholic bottled beverages
• Large format water bottles in the Dining Room and Specialty Restaurants
• 25% discount off the menu price for any spirit or wine by the glass above $20.00
• 25% discount off the menu price for wine and champagne by the bottle
• 25% discount off beverage seminars and classes

CHEERS! EXCLUDES:

• Beverages promoted and sold in souvenir glasses
• Bottles of liquor
• Beverages offered at gangway
• Beverages offered through room service, mini bars and/or in-stateroom beverage programs
• Sharing cocktails, floaters, pitchers, tubes and buckets
• Beverages offered through enomatic wine machines
• All other beverage-related programs including merchandise, cigars and cigarettes
• Food items 

7 hours ago, cruisinfever said:

We are doing a TA on Reflection in November.  Should we prepay and reserve the Lawn Club for dinner?  Was there tables available?

We had no trouble getting tables on our cruise. 

15 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Who are you trying to kid, convertibles in NZ, No chance.😋

Hey, it's not like you have to take the roof down!!!

19 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

That would do it.

I have to admit that does look like about half the cars that are currently driving around in New Zealand!

19 minutes ago, cmichael1279 said:

What limits are there to the type of alcohol you can get with certain drinks???  I never ran into that in the past

I am also interested to hear about this. AFAIK it covers any coffee/water/juice/smoothie/wine/beer/cocktail etc up to $20/glass.

For bottles of wine it gets a discount.

Just now, shipshape sam said:

Would have to compare packages sailing on one of the new/larger Carnival ships to Celebrity.  On Celebrity we had water and coffee included with our alcohol drinks the only time we have tried it.  

Yeah - what I meant was that only alcohol drinks count towards the Carnival 15 a day limit but non alcohol drinks are still "free". IOW you can drink a soda every 5 minutes and never breach the 15 drink daily limit.

On 3/4/2019 at 4:04 AM, 39august said:

Just off Reflection and salmon was on the Blu breakfast menu every day..

And there was smoked salmon in the buffet every day too.

On 3/2/2018 at 5:11 AM, gold1953 said:

the ones on the ship are by the day and sell out quickly

I don't know if they were sold or not, but on our recent cruise the lawn cabanas never seemed to be occupied. To my mind they are too far away from the pools.

I wonder if Carnival have considered this: folk who elect not to purchase a Havana cabin are likely to actively avoid ships that have them. This definitely applies to me. Don't get me wrong: I would consider a HC if I was cruising without the kids. But if with them, or if not wanting to pay the extra $, I would avoid these ships. By having a restricted area, the company are actively and intentionally reducing space and increasing crowding for the rest of their patrons.

8 hours ago, dmcburnie said:

we were also on this cruise and absolutely loved it!!

 

We did Doras tour in Cartagena and felt sheltered from  lot of the begging and we really enjoyed seeing all of the sights, not sure I would have felt comfortable doing it on our own.

 

Curacao, we did a 6 hour island beach hopping tour with Irie tours - this was amazing.

 

We also did Woodwind in Bonaire.  We have two girls aged 10 and 11 and Dee made their first sea snorkel very memorable, couldn't recommend this enough.

 

Our two children loved the Reflection and were happy to go to Kids club and then meet us for shows, silent Disco etc, wouldn't suit all families but our children enjoy doing trips with us and trying different foods in each of the restaurants, for us family time on holiday very important as we both have pretty full on jobs at home with not a lot of family time.

 

We ate in Lawn club, both for lunch and dinner - both times were outstanding.  Porch seafood tower was amazing and we also ate in Murano which again was fantastic.  Had dinner in Tuscan Grille and it was ok, not worth the supplement.

 

Entertainment highlights for us were Diva, Broken strings, Karaoke, and Silent Disco.

 

We had premium beverage package which suited us perfectly as everything all included, same for wifi.

 

Our family rated this a 10 out of 10 cruise and I wish I was back on it, especially since I have spent the last two weeks ill and in hospital with infected gallbladder - how thankful am I that this didn't happen on the cruise!!!!!  Cannot wait to book our next family cruise.

Ah yes I'm pretty sure I remember you guys on Woodwind - we were the pack of 8 kiwis and 2 adopted Americans (assuming your Scottish name and Scottish accents match up?) So glad you at least didn't get sick on the cruise.